Ain't Gonna Happen...

...so says Henshaw, as he finally weighs in on the recent CRTC commissioned report of ways to fix the broken Canadian TV bicycle.

Read his post and weep.

And yes, Jimmy asks a lot of the same questions that I and others who've been slogging it out up here a while were asking ourselves (...like what were the lawyers who wrote the report on?), and having severe doubts this report will do more than collect dust on top of the pile containing the last report, and the one before that one, and so on.

But his rationale for what will be the reports rejection seems to be that the networks don't want simulcasting and ad substitution to stop (so it won't), and they don't want or think they need what we, the majority of Canadian creatives, can offer (so they'll reject or avoid or bury it).

Oh yeah...and the concept of broadcasting as we know it is more or less over, but I'll just sidestep past that little bombshell for the moment.

The last point aside (and it's an important one and Jim's ideas for ways to survive the future should be seriously considered by you kids out there), I'd like to know when it happened that the networks and the cablers got to call all the shots in our industry?

I'm not saying the system isn't screwed and needing a makeover before dying an ugly death as the internets change the world-wide industry as we know it, but I still don't think we should let them keep getting away with what they've been getting away with. And though it may seem fruitless, chipping away (yes, with letters and comments) at the CRTC to pay us some mind certainly can't hurt...can it? Because surely the CRTC could at least start splitting the difference, couldn't they --- perhaps implement some of the recommended changes at least? Otherwise, why did they commission the report? Why should they exist? Who's really in charge?

What's gonna happen? Or better yet, what do we want to happen?


EDIT: Sheila Copps offers up her opinion on the report in today's Edmonton Sun. I don't really get her take at all...sounds like she's saying we already have a healthy thriving indigenous industry who's uniquely Canadian stories will all but disappear if the recommendations come to pass. WTF?